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Spartanburg is in the clear, but city leaders say they will have to change the way they do business.

The FAA cited by the federal agency regulations took effect June 23.

People can fly drones for recreational use, but as soon as they start accepting money for services such as video footage, they are breaking the law.

Spartanburg city leaders were not aware of the regulations, and contracted with Green Giant Media to get drone footage of its Independence Day show.

Then came the call from the FAA.

“If we purchase the video we had talked about contracting with a local video company to produce for us, then a violation would occur,” said Spartanburg Communications Manager Will Rothschild.

Rothschild said he's disappointed because the video could have helped promote the festival for next year.

“We envisioned the video helping with that effort, but we'll find other ways to do it,” said Rothschild.

Richard Seabrook said he doesn't mind having an eye in the sky, if the purpose is to simply to capture beauty shots.

“Now, if they were looking in to my bedroom window or something like that, I may have some privacy concerns, but with what it sounds like they were doing recently, I don't have a problem with that,” said Seabrook.

Meanwhile the city hopes the FAA will reverse its decision on commercial use of drones down the road.

Since the new regulations went into effect, many companies have asked for exceptions. Only a few have been given one.